Production of articles of protective clothing



J. E. MARSDEN ETAL 3,079,274

PRODUCTION OF ARTICLES OF PROTECTIVE CLOTHING Original Filed Jan. 10, 1958 FIG] INVENTORS I M arsd em George Gee +13J34-d- BY M {-W ATTORNEYS Feb. 26, 1963 J. E. MARSDEN ETAL 3,079,274

PRODUCTION OF ARTICLES OF PROTECTIVE CLOTHING I 7 Original Filed Jan. 10, 1958 2 She e tS-Sheet 2 COOLER 2 2 DRAINAGE TROUGH/ DIPPING TANK INVENTORs IEMarsden, Geor e. ee. 4-75.13. Savior! ATTORNEYS 3,079,274 PRGDUCTIGN SF ARTECLES F PRO- TECTEVE CLSTHHNG John Edwin Marsden, George Gee, and Bristowe Buckinnd Saxton, Hyde, England, assignors to James North & Sons Limited, Hyde, England, a British company Uriginal application Jan. 10, E58, Ser. No. 768,101, new Patent No. 3,004,516, dated Get. 17, 1961. Divided and this application May 19, 196-1), Ser. No. 36,280 iaims priority, application Great Britain .lan. it), 1957 Claims. (Cl. 117-94) This invention relates to a process for manufacturing articles of clothing or like articles which includes arranging base fabric on a suitably shaped support, applying a flowable coating material to said fabric, and heating said coating material with the fabric in position on the support, the coating material and heating conditions being so chosen and arranged that the coating material becomes converted into a coherent coating on the base fabric.

The invention is a division of co-pending application Serial No. 708,101, now U.S. Patent No. 3,004,516, issued October 17, 1961, which is made part hereof by reference.

The present invention comprises a process 'of the type described wherein the wall of the said support at those parts over which the said conversion takes place is of thin metal. By the expression thin metal as used herein is meant metal which has a thickness great enough for adequate strength of the support but not greater than four millimeters. Preferably the said thin metal parts of the Wall of the support are of substantially uniform thickness. According to a further feature the thickness of the said parts of the support is not greater than two and a quarter millimeters at any point.

In an important application of the invention the coating material comprises plasticized polyvinyl chloride. If desired, the base fabric may be prefashioned into the approximate shape of the required article before it is arranged on the support and has the coating material applied to it. Where the article is a glove or other article of clothing the inner layer (i.e. the base fabric) may advantageously be made of wool or other flexible absorptive material. In many cases it is desirable that the coating material shall penetrate into the inner layer but shall not penetrate right through to the inner surface. The attainrnent of this result can be assisted by arranging that the heating conditions are such as to raise the temperature of the coating material suddenly up to or above the temperature necessary for conversion. For example with a coating material of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) the article for heat treatment may be introduced suddenly into an oven at a temperature of from 350 F. to 450 F.

Among the advantages resulting from more rapid and even conversion when using a thin-Walled metal support is that, for a given amount of, for example, PVC in the coating, a greater thickness of PVC is obtainable above the fabric surface. This enables a thinner fabric to be used without reduction in any of the essential qualities of the glove. This means a further saving in cost.

The preferred method of producing articles of protective clothing can be economically carried out in continuous manner, and for this purpose a machine may be used which consists essentially of an endless conveyor means secured to which, in transverse parallel rows, are a plurality of supports and a dipping tank, a draining trough, an oven, and a cooler through which, when the conveyor is moving, the supports are caused to pass successively and continuously. The cooler is provided to cool down the hot supports with the articles (e.g. gloves) mounted daereon, as they come from the oven, to a tem- 3,079,274 Patented Feb. 26, 1963 'ice 2 perature which is suitable for stripping off the articles. It has been found that with ceramic supports another cooler has been necessary just before dipping in order to ensure that the supports which are still warm if the conveyor circuit is kept to reasonable dimensions, do

1 not raise the temperature of the substance in the dipping tank too much. Such a secondary cooler has been found unnecessary with thin-walled metal supports since they cool down themselves sufficiently rapidly.

A further advantage can be obtained when using a thin-walled metal support as compared with a ceramic support. It has been the practice to toughen at least a part of the surface of a ceramic support in order to prevent the fabric base from being displaced during and after the coating steps, where this step is carried out with the support downwardly directed. When making gloves, for example, and applying the coating by dipping, with the fingers pointing downwards, it has been usual to toughen the wrist or gauntlet part of the support since otherwise the weight of the coating material has tended to cause slipping of the base fabric on the support. Although slipping has been prevented thereby, diificulties have arisen because the rough part of the support has made it difficult to fit the base fabric on the support. The base fabric has usually had to be carefully shaped to fit the support, and even so the operative fitting the base fabric on the support has often experienced soreness of the fingers due to repeated contact with the roughened surface. When using a thin-walled metal support with a similarly roughened part it has been found, surprisingly, that with many fabrics, such difficulties have not been experienced in fitting the base fabric over the support. This has been so marked that in some cases it has been found possible to simplify the shape of the base fabric with consequent saving in material and time.

The invention will now be described further, by way of example, With reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a support for a glove; and

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view of a system adapted for the practice of the invention.

The support new described is intended to be used for the manufacture by the preferred method of righthand gloves having a long gauntlet. Only a right hand support is described, but a left hand support is made in like manner.

In use as shown in FIG. 2 the supports 20 are mounted in parallel rows transversely of an endless conveyor by bolts 14a passing through a mounting bar into the screwed bushes 14 of the support base which is arranged to convey them continuously and successively through a dipping tank 21, over a draining trough 22, through an oven 23, and through a cooler 24. After passing out from the cooler 24 finished gloves are stripped from the supports 20 and new fabric bases fitted thereto. These pass, whilst supported on the supports 20, into the dipping tank 21, which contains PVC paste, and then, after excess paste has drained into the trough 22, through the oven 23 which is maintained at a temperature of approximately 380 F. to elfect conversion of the PVC paste, into a coherent coating on the base fabric.

We claim:

1. A process of making particles of clothing of absorptive fabric coated on one side only with a coherent layer of a synthetic coating which comprise-s providing a thin hollow metal support having the form of said article, said support having a uniform thickness throughout, fitting a formed fabric article over said support, said fabric being absorptive and free from coatings and from impregnants, applying to the outer surface of the article a paste of a synthetic coating material, the consistency of the paste 3 at ambient temperature being such that the coating material can be applied without it penetrating completely through the fabric, then suddenly introducing the article on said support into a chamber at a temperature substantially above the normal conversion temperature of said material, whereby heat penetration occurs from both inside and outside of said support to obtain rapid setting of said material without substantial further penetration of the fabric by said material, and said article is rapidly and uniformly heated to give a uniform converted layer over the outer surface of the fabric.

2. A process according to claim 1 in which said material is a polyvinyl chloride which has been plasticized.

3. A process according to claim 1 in which the temperature is about 356-450 F.

4. A process according to claim 1 in which said support is of uniform thickness, said thickness being not over 4 millimeters.

4. 5. A process according to claim 1 in which said article is a glove.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,163,653 Williams Dec. 7, 1915 1,458,185 Hempmll June 12, 1923 1,939,852 Howard et a1 Dec. 19, 1933 2,273,995 Rogerson et ai Feb. 24, 1942 2,315,310 Bitter et al Mar. 30, 1943 2,713,548 White et a1 July 19, 1955 2,747,229 Teague May 29, 1956 OTHER REFERENCES British Plastics, April 1948, pp. 167-171 (article by D. K. Baird). 

1. A PROCESS FOR MAKING PARTICLES OF CLOTHING OF ABSORPTIVE FABRIC COATED ON ONE SIDE ONLY WITH A COHERENT LAYER OF A SYNTHETIC COATING WHICH COMPRISES PROVIDING A THIN HOLLOW METAL SUPPORT HAVING THE FORM OF SAID ARTICLES, SAID SUPPORT HAVING A UNIFORM THICKNESS THROUGHOUT, FITTING A FORMED FABRIC ARTICLES OVER SAID SUPPORT, SAID FABRIC BEING ABSORPTIVE AND FREE FROM COATINGS AND FROM IMPREGNANTS, APPLYING TO THE OUTER SURFACE OF THE ARTICLES A PASTE OF A SYNTHETIC COATING MATERIAL, THE CONSISTENCY OF THE PASTE AT AMBIENT TEMPERATURE BEING SUCH THAT THE COATING MATERIAL CAN BE APPLIED WITHOUT IT PENETRATING COMPLETELY THROUGH THE FABRIC, THEN SUDDENLY INTRODUCING THE ARTICLE ON SAID SUPPORT INTO A CHAMBER AT A TEMPERATURE SUBSTANTIALLY ABOVE THE NORMAL CONVERSION TEMPERATURE OF SAID MATERIAL, WHEREBY HEAT PENETRATION OCCURS FROM BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF SAID SUPPORT TO OBTAIN RAPID SETTING OF SAID MATERIAL WITHOUT SUBSTANTIAL FURTHER PENETRATION OF THE FABRIC BY SAID MATERIAL, AND SAID ARTICLE IS RAPIDLY AND UNFORMLY HEATED TO GIVE A UNIFORM CONVERTED LAYER OVER THE OUTER SURFACE OF THE FABRIC. 